Resurrection Promises
Notes
Transcript
This morning we have been here and we have been celebrating and worshipping God for who he is and what he has done, or we should have been. The truth is, though, that some of you this morning are not in a healthy place, you have some stuff going on in your life that has burdened you and you are feeling the weight of it.
For some of you there are health reasons that are dragging you down and making you feel like you just can’t move forward, the weight of the decisions, the weight of the unknown have began to just weigh on you.
For some of you its a job struggle, you hate going to work everyday, maybe its your boss or a coworker, or just the job itself, the joy you once had is gone and now you are burdened by it and you just don’t know what to do, and you came in this morning and the struggle with that has made it hard to worship… you can’t really see how good God is in the middle of everything else you have going on.
For some its
But the real question is, what can we hold onto in the middle of some of these hard experiences, what is it that can give us hope it is when we can look at the faithfulness of God and hold on to his promises. To know what he has told us and to actually believe it.
And as we continue walking through the Book of John this morning we are going to look at some of the promises of God about the resurrection and what that means for all of us.
And let’s be really honest, in this whole upper room discussion with his disciples there has been a ton of confusion… the guys aren’t really understanding what is going on and Jesus has dropped some bombs on them..
Washed their feet… don’t get it
Said that one would betray him…didn’t get that either
Said that he’d leave them… definitely not understanding that and Peter questions what he means
Jesus clarifies in the best way he can, saying he was going to prepare a place for them with the father by going to the cross…
THat confuses Thomas and he’s like hold up wait a minute…
And Jesus says come on Thomas don’t you understand that I am the true and only way to the Father?
And Phillip doesn’t understand and asks a question…
So Jesus responds to them telling about his unity with the Father and how the helper would soon come to help them understand. And as we have said, Jesus knew they wouldn;t understand, so maybe still knowing of their confusion he says this..
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
And it is certain that Jesus knows the feelings of orphans… he knows what it is like to feel like you are alone and have nowhere to turn… I am sure some of those feelings arose while he was in the wilderness fasting…or look at what he said in Mt 8:20
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
And there is this sense of loneliness or aloneness in those words, and i think that Jesus knows how these disciples will feel in his absence after his death… I remember the most amazing Good Friday service… read story up to the tomb and stopped.. and I wanted more… it was only worse for them…
And he wants them to know when they get to their deepest moment of need he will not leave them alone… he will not abandon them… he will be with them and make sure they are not wandering as orphans do. He will be with them.
And this is most obviously a promise to these guys, but what is he telling them, is he talking about his second coming like he had earlier in verse 3, or is he speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit that we just talked about last week and will see again next week, and these are some of the main views, and I think you can say yes and amen to both of these things. It is pretty easy to see what Jesus is saying and you can understand it this way, but I think what Jesus is really talking about here is a promise with the resurrection in view, in fact that is what most of this section is talking about, he is telling them all about his view on the resurrection and what is about to come and I think this is no different
And I think we can see he is saying… after a little while the world will no longer see me…
Jesus is saying after the crucifixion he will be taken from the world… and it shows there is a difference between the world and his people… there is a difference in what they can see… because he says… but YOU will see me…
and I think Jesus is trying to say look… I want you to know all this other stuff is true… that you will be in the middle of pain, but I will come back to you… and you will see me… I will be there after the cross… don’t worry…
Talk about how he won’t leave us either….
and in verse 20 we see the second promise of the resurrection this morning… he has already promised he would come and not leave them like orphans, but now he is making a second promise…
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
He is saying, look I know I have been telling you over and over again about my relationship with the father and how close we are, but in the moment when you see me again, you will never doubt that it is true… You will know that the same way that my father and I are connected is the same way you and I are connected there will no longer be any doubt about what you have been taught.
And while we may gloss over it this is some deep teaching on the trinity here… and what Jesus is telling them is when they believe in him its not just fellowship with him they will have but they will have fellowship with the entire trinity… even the helper he has just told them about..
And Jesus is telling them in this moment that way back in 13:7 when I told you you wouldn’t understand what was going on… my death on the cross is actually what is going to bring enlightenment to everything… it is what is going to help you to see everything I have been telling you.
And we need to realize this promise this thing Jesus has offered them is the same thing that happens to us… when we are raised by Jesus… when we give him our lives and count him as our personal Lord and saviour his resurrection is what enlightens us on the things of Jesus that were once confusing… before coming to Jesus many of us and many still in the world today do not understand their need for a savior, or even if they do they may not understand just how horribly sinful we are and the actual state of our depravity, but the resurrection of Jesus is what opens our eyes to that and gives us knowledge… he is the light and it is what brings light to the darkness of our lives so we can see clearly…
So he has promised he would not leave them as orphans, he has promised they would understand the union of the trinity more clearly, and now he promises this amazing resurrection love.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
And what we see here is that Jesus is teaching us about how love and obedience go hand in hand with him.
Often we hear people say they can do whatever they want and still love Jesus, they have grace so they can do whatever they please because Jesus loves us and has set us free from all the stipulations… but this calls that idea absurd as it looks and Jesus says hey, if you love me you will do what I have said. And for some this may sound like we have no choice… that we are slaves to a law but I love what Alexander Maclaren said,
“There are two motives for keeping commandments – one because they are commanded, and one because we love Him that commands. The first is slavery, the other is liberty. One is cold as the Artic – chilly and barren, the other is like the tropics – warm and inviting.”
Yes we do what he said because he has commanded it, but really we do what he said because he loves us, and there is a huge difference between the two, and the closer our relationship gets with him the more we begin to see the difference between the two. And for some the relationship truly starts in the manner of keeping his commands just because he told us to. There is nothing more to it than blind obedience… because we haven’t truly begun to love him yet.
I think back to the fresh christian and when even I first came to Christ and we would follow the rules and do what he said because it was the rules… it was the only way we were able to figure out life and make sure it made sense and kept us on track. But the more we came to know him, the more our knowledge of him grew the better we could see and realize how much he loved us and we him and we begin to move and do things just out of that love.
And you can understand that… your love motivates your actions for your spouse… your children… you do things because you love them… and our love for Jesus should motivate us all the more to follow him.
And this is the pattern of life we see Jesus teaching us here… the new resurrection life produces this new love, which then gives us a deeper understanding of God, and that deeper understanding of God gives us an even deeper love and causes even more obedience, and that love and obedience causes a deeper understanding… which causes mroe love and the cycle keeps going deeper and deeper…
And all of these promises in this sequence are going to bring out a new question.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
And here it seems that Judas is making this question and wondering how the Messiah could be secretive and only show them when they have this idea the Messiah will come and make a very public statement when he comes… Which we realize he has done already when he come for the triumphant entry… we talked about how big of a spectacle that was… and they have missed it of course… but with this question we see Jesus give us his fourth promise
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
And what we see here is the same promise, but Jesus has juxtaposed it in a positive manner, and then a negative one right in the next verse.
First he says if we keep his words, if we do what he says he dwell with us we will dwell together. And when he is talking about this here he is talking about the indwelling of the holy spirit in the life of the believer. And we will have him with us and we will not be alone…
On the other hand, if we do not have him, if we do not profess him as Lord and savior and say we want to do this life on our own, he is gracious, and gives us what we ask for and leaves us alone.
And so we come full circle this morning.,, and we get back to the place where we started and I say I know this morning there are some of you that are dealing with some stuff… you are hurting… and the pain is daunting… if you do not know Jesus as your savior there is a very deep reason for that… you don’t have the helper with you…
IF you do know Jesus this mornign, I would encourage you to look back on these verses and hold on to those promises, remind yourself of these promises over and over again meditating on his word and allow the Helper to speak into your life
YOU
YOU
WE
WE
